He famously drove the show’s head coach Karen Barber to tears by saying her opinion was irrelevant, and in another incident suggested a contestant had “chromosomal deficiencies”.

Several episodes of Channel 4’s The Joy Of Teen Sex were criticised for overly sexualising children.

Radio programming also featured, with TalkSport presenter Danny Kelly’s use of the word “nonce” to describe former Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez considered the most offensive incident on radio last year.

The complaints figure is not usually revealed by Ofcom, although many of the programmes received more complaints to the broadcaster themselves rather than the watchdog - Clarkson’s rant about strikers saw more than 30,000 complaints to the BBC.